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Chaucer's Knight: The Portrait of a Medieval Mercenary
Fourth edition of Terry Jones's groundbreaking study, featuring new material and research Since it was first published in 1980, Terry Jones's study of Geoffrey Chaucer's Knight has proved to be one of the most enduringly popular and controversial books ever to hit the world of Chaucer scholarship. Jones questions the accepted view of the Knight as a paragon of Christian chivalry, and argues that he is in fact no more than a professional mercenary who has spent his life in the service of petty despots and tyrants around the world. This edition includes astonishing new evidence from Jones, who argues that the character of the Knight was actually based on Sir John Hawkwood (d.1394), a marauding English freebooter and mercenary who pillaged his way across northern Italy during the 14th century, running protection rackets on the Italian Dukes and creating a vast fortune in the process.
321 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1980
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About the author
Terry Jones
188 books290 followersLibrarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
Terence Graham Parry Jones was a Welsh actor, comedian, director, historian, writer and member of the Monty Python comedy troupe.
After graduating from Oxford University with a degree in English, Jones and writing partner Michael Palin wrote and performed for several high-profile British comedy programmes, including Do Not Adjust Your Set and The Frost Report, before creating Monty Python's Flying Circus with Cambridge graduates Graham Chapman, John Cleese, and Eric Idle and American animator-filmmaker Terry Gilliam. Jones was largely responsible for the programme's innovative, surreal structure, in which sketches flowed from one to the next without the use of punch lines. He made his directorial debut with Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which he co-directed with Gilliam, and also directed the subsequent Python films Life of Brian and The Meaning of Life.
Jones co-created and co-wrote with Palin the anthology series Ripping Yarns. He also wrote an early draft of Jim Henson's film Labyrinth and is credited with the screenplay, though little of his work actually remained in the final cut. Jones was a well-respected medieval historian, having written several books and presented television documentaries about the period, as well as a prolific children's author. In 2016, Jones received a Lifetime Achievement award at the BAFTA Cymru Awards for his outstanding contribution to television and film. After living for several years with a degenerative aphasia, he gradually lost the ability to speak and died in 2020 from frontotemporal dementia.
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
Terence Graham Parry Jones was a Welsh actor, comedian, director, historian, writer and member of the Monty Python comedy troupe.
After graduating from Oxford University with a degree in English, Jones and writing partner Michael Palin wrote and performed for several high-profile British comedy programmes, including Do Not Adjust Your Set and The Frost Report, before creating Monty Python's Flying Circus with Cambridge graduates Graham Chapman, John Cleese, and Eric Idle and American animator-filmmaker Terry Gilliam. Jones was largely responsible for the programme's innovative, surreal structure, in which sketches flowed from one to the next without the use of punch lines. He made his directorial debut with Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which he co-directed with Gilliam, and also directed the subsequent Python films Life of Brian and The Meaning of Life.
Jones co-created and co-wrote with Palin the anthology series Ripping Yarns. He also wrote an early draft of Jim Henson's film Labyrinth and is credited with the screenplay, though little of his work actually remained in the final cut. Jones was a well-respected medieval historian, having written several books and presented television documentaries about the period, as well as a prolific children's author. In 2016, Jones received a Lifetime Achievement award at the BAFTA Cymru Awards for his outstanding contribution to television and film. After living for several years with a degenerative aphasia, he gradually lost the ability to speak and died in 2020 from frontotemporal dementia.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
February 16, 2012
Superb. Erudite, wonderfully researched, brilliantly written, this book is essential reading for anyone interested in medieval knights around the Hundred Years War. Cannot recommend highly enough - it influenced much of my own work for the last decade.
May 12, 2014
A most impressive fresco of a sculptured horseman in trompe-l’oeil perspective dominates the north aisle of Florence’s Duomo. Painted in 1436 by Uccello (best known perhaps for his painting of St George and the Dragon in London’s National Gallery) the Latin inscription indicates that it represents Ioannes Acutus Eques Britannicus Dux Aetatis Suae Cavtissimus et Rei Militaris Peritissimus Habitus Est. A rough translation informs us that this is “John Hawkwood, British knight, the most careful leader of his age and in matters of war the most skilled”. It is an extraordinary monument in an already extraordinary building and at first leaves us wondering why an Englishman from Essex is commemorated so prominently in a Tuscan cathedral.
Hawkwood, who died in 1394 in his seventies, was variously known as Jean Haccoude in France and Giovanni Acuto in Italy, but his calling wasn’t that which we might associate with, say, an Arthurian knight — he was a condottiere, a mercenary, leader of the White Company of mercenaries, and worked for various despots, first in France and then extensively in Italy, receiving a pension from Florence before his death there. Mercenaries owe allegiance to none except those who pay them, and sometimes not even then, and are frequently a law unto themselves.
As a schoolboy I had little idea of the realities of medieval knighthood, vaguely aware that the chivalrous knights of Arthurian tales were supposed to abide by a code of honourable warfare. So, when we came to ‘do’ Chaucer’s Prologue to The Canterbury Tales and a couple of the tales themselves, I found his Knight tedious – as the verray, parfit gentil knight he lacked any of the ironic or humorous attributes Chaucer gave to the other pilgrims, and the list of battles in which he’d participated meant nothing to me, to the other A-level students and, I suspect, the teacher himself.
So when in 1980 I came across a library copy of Chaucer’s Knight I was excited: here at last was the reason why none of us ‘got’ this character at school — he was a paid professional soldier, with none of Chaucer’s epithets to be taken at face value, neither faithful, complete nor well-born. And I was doubly excited, for the author was Terry Jones, best known then as a member of the Monty Python team but now also as screenwriter, actor, director, author and TV documentary presenter. What insights could he, would he provide?
I found that this Oxford history graduate had at school, some half dozen years before me, also been perplexed by the contrasts within the “witty yet compassionate” portraitist of some of his pilgrims who was also responsible for “apparently dull and interminable pieces” such as the tales by the Knight and the Monk. At university he found that historians thought it self-evident that the Knight was a mercenary but that it was “anathema to literary scholars”. Almost laughably, while on location filming that parody of history Monty Python and the Holy Grail at a Scottish castle he gained more insights into medieval responses to mercenary duplicity. And he realised that Chaucer had even carried out secret negotiations with his contemporary Sir John Hawkwood, the mercenary of the age.
So Jones sets out to explain the ‘jokes’ in Chaucer’s portrayal of the Knight by reference to the military background, providing a commentary on the real meanings of Middle English words used to describe the Knight’s character and actions in the Prologue, underlining the subtext of The Knight’s Tale and explaining why the Knight rudely interrupts the Monk in the middle of his tale. I can’t overemphasise how comprehensive yet readable Jones’ text is: while copiously referenced, the general reader can take or leave the footnotes without seriously doubting that the tenor of his argument is correct. There are maps and (in this early paperback edition) several monochrome illustrations and, for the more finicky, a quarter of the text is taken up with an appendix, detailed yet fascinating notes, bibliography and index.
A fascinating picture emerges of the change in ethics from a feudal society to the professional, commercially-oriented society familiar to us 600 years on. Chaucer’s satire is strangely relevant even now and Jones leaves no stone unturned to hammer home his point. This must be the essential companion to any reading or re-reading of the Prologue or The Knight’s Tale. And perhaps a helpful preparation for any future visit or re-visit to Florence to view the portrait of one probable inspiration for Chaucer’s professional soldier.
http://wp.me/s2oNj1-knyght
Hawkwood, who died in 1394 in his seventies, was variously known as Jean Haccoude in France and Giovanni Acuto in Italy, but his calling wasn’t that which we might associate with, say, an Arthurian knight — he was a condottiere, a mercenary, leader of the White Company of mercenaries, and worked for various despots, first in France and then extensively in Italy, receiving a pension from Florence before his death there. Mercenaries owe allegiance to none except those who pay them, and sometimes not even then, and are frequently a law unto themselves.
As a schoolboy I had little idea of the realities of medieval knighthood, vaguely aware that the chivalrous knights of Arthurian tales were supposed to abide by a code of honourable warfare. So, when we came to ‘do’ Chaucer’s Prologue to The Canterbury Tales and a couple of the tales themselves, I found his Knight tedious – as the verray, parfit gentil knight he lacked any of the ironic or humorous attributes Chaucer gave to the other pilgrims, and the list of battles in which he’d participated meant nothing to me, to the other A-level students and, I suspect, the teacher himself.
So when in 1980 I came across a library copy of Chaucer’s Knight I was excited: here at last was the reason why none of us ‘got’ this character at school — he was a paid professional soldier, with none of Chaucer’s epithets to be taken at face value, neither faithful, complete nor well-born. And I was doubly excited, for the author was Terry Jones, best known then as a member of the Monty Python team but now also as screenwriter, actor, director, author and TV documentary presenter. What insights could he, would he provide?
I found that this Oxford history graduate had at school, some half dozen years before me, also been perplexed by the contrasts within the “witty yet compassionate” portraitist of some of his pilgrims who was also responsible for “apparently dull and interminable pieces” such as the tales by the Knight and the Monk. At university he found that historians thought it self-evident that the Knight was a mercenary but that it was “anathema to literary scholars”. Almost laughably, while on location filming that parody of history Monty Python and the Holy Grail at a Scottish castle he gained more insights into medieval responses to mercenary duplicity. And he realised that Chaucer had even carried out secret negotiations with his contemporary Sir John Hawkwood, the mercenary of the age.
So Jones sets out to explain the ‘jokes’ in Chaucer’s portrayal of the Knight by reference to the military background, providing a commentary on the real meanings of Middle English words used to describe the Knight’s character and actions in the Prologue, underlining the subtext of The Knight’s Tale and explaining why the Knight rudely interrupts the Monk in the middle of his tale. I can’t overemphasise how comprehensive yet readable Jones’ text is: while copiously referenced, the general reader can take or leave the footnotes without seriously doubting that the tenor of his argument is correct. There are maps and (in this early paperback edition) several monochrome illustrations and, for the more finicky, a quarter of the text is taken up with an appendix, detailed yet fascinating notes, bibliography and index.
A fascinating picture emerges of the change in ethics from a feudal society to the professional, commercially-oriented society familiar to us 600 years on. Chaucer’s satire is strangely relevant even now and Jones leaves no stone unturned to hammer home his point. This must be the essential companion to any reading or re-reading of the Prologue or The Knight’s Tale. And perhaps a helpful preparation for any future visit or re-visit to Florence to view the portrait of one probable inspiration for Chaucer’s professional soldier.
http://wp.me/s2oNj1-knyght
June 16, 2019
It would seem nonsensical to read a book that undertakes a critical reappraisal of a key literary character in Chaucer's 'The Canterbury Tales' when said criticism is written by a man who's reputation rests mostly on his participation in 'Monty Python', and when I haven't read the text being analysed. However 'Chaucer's Knight' by Terry Jones is arguably most readable because he has written an erudite critical study that is both accessible (due in part to his Python notoriety) and focused on citing so much relevant information, both from the poem and from other sources. I will admit that being a mad Python fan will prejudice these judgements, however as the following review will hopefully show, one can come to this book without being a devotee of Terry Jones and/or Chaucer and still get much from reading it.
The most strident argument that recommends 'Chaucer's Knight' in my opinion is that Jones reinvests the poetic persona of the Knight with his historical context. Of course much has been made for many a year now in the world of literary criticism that the author's view of his or her work is but one interpretation, and that a work of literature has valid meanings that can be constructed through the viewpoint of the recipient. I have no trouble with that paradigm of literary criticism; however, in the haste to impose meaning from the 'consumer's' perspective onto a book, story, poem etc, the danger is that the first and prime concept(s) that underpin said piece of literature are ignored, forgotten or jettisoned.
What is striking about Jones's work is that he contextualises Chaucer's work into the historical, social and political world within which it is written, and through this approach strips away the layers of lacquered criticism that (in my opinion and I think Jones' as well) undermines what the Knight represents in truth. Jones makes an incredibly well argued case against the semi-hagiographic approach that appears to have dominated the discourse around the character, pulling apart Chaucer's lines about this 'veray parfit, gentil Knight', placing him into the real world of late 14th century readers. The manner in which Jones deconstructs the construct and description of the Knight in the General Prologue through the second and third chapters, making sure to position the persona against the battles he fought in, his appearance, his values, his variance from what has been positioned as an idealised Christian chivalrous warrior is masterful. Reading these chapters that are devoted to this re-evaluation of the Knight is like watching hundreds of years of dirt and dust wiped off a medieval painting, restoring the humanity of the work and the incisive vision of the artist.
The commentary of the Knight's Tale in the fourth chapter of this book is a little less compelling, due mostly to the more expansive and possibly contentious readings required to take on board Jones' interpretation. There is plenty of well marshalled evidence to support and reinforce Jones' arguments, however the amount of text citations becomes a bit hard to swallow. It is easier for Jones to help his non-expert reader engage with a two line analysis of the Knight's mercenary actions in Prussia, Turkey and Egypt than to understand the complex ideas hidden within a ten or so line extract from a poetic narrative owing much to the likes of Boccaccio and Boethius. Herein lies one of the problems with Chaucer & his poetry that strikes me, and perhaps Jones as well, though he only speaks to it in an academic form. The Middle English of Chaucer provides just enough linguistic familiarity for a modern reader to think he or she comprehends it, whilst at the same time making the exercise of reading it a seriously challenging task. Therefore, when Jones' argues on the niceties of linguistic constructions and conventions he makes lots of sense, however it takes some time, effort and some cognitive re-evaluation to really make the right connections.
Jones' prose is generally highly readable for the lay-person in the first three chapters, and I was considerably impressed by his research and citations. It is important to remember that this is a literary criticism written at a time when the internet wasn't in existence, hence making the accumulation of articles, books and other academic materials that much harder. It may be pointed out that Jones fails to discuss the textual issues that may have impacted upon the transmission of 'The Canterbury Tales', and this could be considered a weakness. However that is an argument for pedants and experts to mount, not a casual reader such as I.
Finally, I think it's important to understand that this book was the work of a man who was renowned for his work in writing and performing comedy, yet who also has demonstrated here (and in later work) all the perceptiveness, critical graft and historical understanding of a 'serious' academic. 'Chaucer's Knight' isn't the scribblings of a dilettante trying to show off how smart he is; no, this is a serious work of literary analysis that should be praised not just for what it is, but also as a celebration of Terry Jones' intellect.
If you'rte into literary criticism, Chaucer, Python and/or medieval history please read 'Chaucer's Knight'.
The most strident argument that recommends 'Chaucer's Knight' in my opinion is that Jones reinvests the poetic persona of the Knight with his historical context. Of course much has been made for many a year now in the world of literary criticism that the author's view of his or her work is but one interpretation, and that a work of literature has valid meanings that can be constructed through the viewpoint of the recipient. I have no trouble with that paradigm of literary criticism; however, in the haste to impose meaning from the 'consumer's' perspective onto a book, story, poem etc, the danger is that the first and prime concept(s) that underpin said piece of literature are ignored, forgotten or jettisoned.
What is striking about Jones's work is that he contextualises Chaucer's work into the historical, social and political world within which it is written, and through this approach strips away the layers of lacquered criticism that (in my opinion and I think Jones' as well) undermines what the Knight represents in truth. Jones makes an incredibly well argued case against the semi-hagiographic approach that appears to have dominated the discourse around the character, pulling apart Chaucer's lines about this 'veray parfit, gentil Knight', placing him into the real world of late 14th century readers. The manner in which Jones deconstructs the construct and description of the Knight in the General Prologue through the second and third chapters, making sure to position the persona against the battles he fought in, his appearance, his values, his variance from what has been positioned as an idealised Christian chivalrous warrior is masterful. Reading these chapters that are devoted to this re-evaluation of the Knight is like watching hundreds of years of dirt and dust wiped off a medieval painting, restoring the humanity of the work and the incisive vision of the artist.
The commentary of the Knight's Tale in the fourth chapter of this book is a little less compelling, due mostly to the more expansive and possibly contentious readings required to take on board Jones' interpretation. There is plenty of well marshalled evidence to support and reinforce Jones' arguments, however the amount of text citations becomes a bit hard to swallow. It is easier for Jones to help his non-expert reader engage with a two line analysis of the Knight's mercenary actions in Prussia, Turkey and Egypt than to understand the complex ideas hidden within a ten or so line extract from a poetic narrative owing much to the likes of Boccaccio and Boethius. Herein lies one of the problems with Chaucer & his poetry that strikes me, and perhaps Jones as well, though he only speaks to it in an academic form. The Middle English of Chaucer provides just enough linguistic familiarity for a modern reader to think he or she comprehends it, whilst at the same time making the exercise of reading it a seriously challenging task. Therefore, when Jones' argues on the niceties of linguistic constructions and conventions he makes lots of sense, however it takes some time, effort and some cognitive re-evaluation to really make the right connections.
Jones' prose is generally highly readable for the lay-person in the first three chapters, and I was considerably impressed by his research and citations. It is important to remember that this is a literary criticism written at a time when the internet wasn't in existence, hence making the accumulation of articles, books and other academic materials that much harder. It may be pointed out that Jones fails to discuss the textual issues that may have impacted upon the transmission of 'The Canterbury Tales', and this could be considered a weakness. However that is an argument for pedants and experts to mount, not a casual reader such as I.
Finally, I think it's important to understand that this book was the work of a man who was renowned for his work in writing and performing comedy, yet who also has demonstrated here (and in later work) all the perceptiveness, critical graft and historical understanding of a 'serious' academic. 'Chaucer's Knight' isn't the scribblings of a dilettante trying to show off how smart he is; no, this is a serious work of literary analysis that should be praised not just for what it is, but also as a celebration of Terry Jones' intellect.
If you'rte into literary criticism, Chaucer, Python and/or medieval history please read 'Chaucer's Knight'.
March 20, 2020
At a party over the holiday season, a friend and I recited the first stanza of the "General Prologue" to The Canterbury Tales as a demonstration, I suppose, of industrial-age, English-major solidarity. She was drunk. I'm not sure about my excuse. Maybe, at the schools that still offer an English major (no longer an option at Goucher College in Baltimore), they're still making the kids memorize it, but I rather doubt it (Which is a pity, he reflexively said, without any rational justification [elocution? character?] whatsoever, like every old guy since always.). At any rate, until I read "The Knights Tale" in conjunction with this splendid, if a little over-proved, piece of criticism, watching the 1972 Pasolini film a couple of times in the intervening decades and busting out with a "smalle fowles maken melodye" reference every April is pretty much the extent of my interaction with Chaucer since my undergraduate survey course. Which, as it turns out, is also a pity. I've mostly thought of Chaucer as a sort of hokey, amiable purveyor of folksy ribaldry and melodrama and not the deft literary sophisticate for whom Terry Jones (yes,
that Terry Jones
!!!) convincingly makes a case here. I'm thinking that when I finish my Folio project, I may need to get started on a Canterbury journey.
I bought Chaucer's Knight several years ago while on a Folio-prompted, Hundred-Years-War bender. I thought I should use Jones' recent passing as a prompt to read a title I wasn't likely to get to, otherwise. I'm really glad I did. When I briefly sampled Chaucer as an undergraduate, not long after this book was first published, we had skipped "The Knight's Tale because my professor - echoing, apparently, critical consensus at the time - considered it to be a long and boring and awkwardly executed courtly romance. Jones maintains - pretty incontrovertibly, I think (although this tendentious, tone-deaf tool would disagree) -in a close, careful reading that that consensus completely missed the boat on what is, in fact, not a romance at all but a pointed satire of the mercenary economy that was transforming European politics at the close of the fourteenth century. Chaucer's "parfit, gentle knight," he argues, is anything but. No flower of chivalry he, but a crass, cold-blooded, probably low-born, professional killer doubtless based at least in part on legendary condottiero, Sir John Hawkwood , whom Chaucer had met while on a diplomatic mission to the Milanese court of quintessential Renaissance strongman Bernabo Visconti.
I had heard that Jones was a medievalist, but I guess I had taken that about as seriously as I take the notion of George W. Bush as a painter. Adorbs. I could not have been more wrong. Chaucerwise, Terry Jones was a serious cat. Don't get me wrong. As a comedian, I took him WAY more seriously than I ever took Bush as president, but Oxford degree notwithstanding, I wasn't expecting such professional, academic chops. That the style was exceptionally fluent came as no surprise from a Python alum, but the capacious erudition sorta did. My one cavil with the book, which gets rather significant as the argument progresses, is the way Jones over-proves just about every point. There are too many examples in his arguments. He's as right as he could be and he's frustrated that so many smart readers (he actually cites, to my keen disappointment, another of my undergraduate professors) don't understand how funny this tale is, but too much evidence rhetorically conveys a lack of confidence.
I bought Chaucer's Knight several years ago while on a Folio-prompted, Hundred-Years-War bender. I thought I should use Jones' recent passing as a prompt to read a title I wasn't likely to get to, otherwise. I'm really glad I did. When I briefly sampled Chaucer as an undergraduate, not long after this book was first published, we had skipped "The Knight's Tale because my professor - echoing, apparently, critical consensus at the time - considered it to be a long and boring and awkwardly executed courtly romance. Jones maintains - pretty incontrovertibly, I think (although this tendentious, tone-deaf tool would disagree) -in a close, careful reading that that consensus completely missed the boat on what is, in fact, not a romance at all but a pointed satire of the mercenary economy that was transforming European politics at the close of the fourteenth century. Chaucer's "parfit, gentle knight," he argues, is anything but. No flower of chivalry he, but a crass, cold-blooded, probably low-born, professional killer doubtless based at least in part on legendary condottiero, Sir John Hawkwood , whom Chaucer had met while on a diplomatic mission to the Milanese court of quintessential Renaissance strongman Bernabo Visconti.
I had heard that Jones was a medievalist, but I guess I had taken that about as seriously as I take the notion of George W. Bush as a painter. Adorbs. I could not have been more wrong. Chaucerwise, Terry Jones was a serious cat. Don't get me wrong. As a comedian, I took him WAY more seriously than I ever took Bush as president, but Oxford degree notwithstanding, I wasn't expecting such professional, academic chops. That the style was exceptionally fluent came as no surprise from a Python alum, but the capacious erudition sorta did. My one cavil with the book, which gets rather significant as the argument progresses, is the way Jones over-proves just about every point. There are too many examples in his arguments. He's as right as he could be and he's frustrated that so many smart readers (he actually cites, to my keen disappointment, another of my undergraduate professors) don't understand how funny this tale is, but too much evidence rhetorically conveys a lack of confidence.
March 11, 2020
Definitely for those with a strong interest in English literature of the middle ages, or in European history of the middle ages, but I recommend it for those who have an interest in one or both. While I think I'd have gotten more out of it if I were more familiar with The Canterbury Tales, I still found it an interesting read. (My relevant background/interest is in history, not literature.)
Jones includes enough excerpts that the book is perfectly readable even if you haven't read The Canterbury Tales. He also includes information about other interpretations of The Knight's Tale, and the book has an extensive bibliography, should one want to track down more information and debate about the story and what Chaucer may have intended. The book is basically an extremely readable, book-length scholarly examination. (So don't go in expecting a popular history sort of thing. But, at the same time, it is very readable.)
Jones includes enough excerpts that the book is perfectly readable even if you haven't read The Canterbury Tales. He also includes information about other interpretations of The Knight's Tale, and the book has an extensive bibliography, should one want to track down more information and debate about the story and what Chaucer may have intended. The book is basically an extremely readable, book-length scholarly examination. (So don't go in expecting a popular history sort of thing. But, at the same time, it is very readable.)
June 14, 2021
Masterful reexamination of the Chaucer character.
I remember this feeling quite revelatory when I read it. the Knight had been presented asa symbol of virtue for centuries. But apparently he falls far short of what would be expected of a real person like him to present himself like.
Jones examines the way that a Knight of his time would view as neccessary in his presentation and shows how instead of his external appearance being a sign of modesty there is omething else being presented,.
I really enjoy Jones' writing here and in the other history books i have read by him. Also really enjoyed the history shows he has done for the BBC.
It has been a while since I read this. But did make me wish he'd looked further into other characters from Chaucer. Not just a Monty Python performer but a very interesting historian
I remember this feeling quite revelatory when I read it. the Knight had been presented asa symbol of virtue for centuries. But apparently he falls far short of what would be expected of a real person like him to present himself like.
Jones examines the way that a Knight of his time would view as neccessary in his presentation and shows how instead of his external appearance being a sign of modesty there is omething else being presented,.
I really enjoy Jones' writing here and in the other history books i have read by him. Also really enjoyed the history shows he has done for the BBC.
It has been a while since I read this. But did make me wish he'd looked further into other characters from Chaucer. Not just a Monty Python performer but a very interesting historian
April 6, 2020
A fun, informative read that presents itself in small chunks. A fascinating slow read.
July 14, 2021
Excellent look at Chaucer’s Knight and the reality of the individual once understood within the context of Chaucer.
Michael Jecks of Writerly Witterings recommended it.
Michael Jecks of Writerly Witterings recommended it.
August 19, 2014
Terry Jones is not The Messiah, he is a very naughty boy! Jones's take-down of a few hundred years of accepted literary scholarship is a few decades old now, but it's still a brilliant piece of writing. The traditional literary wisdom has Chaucer's Knight as a model of chivalric virtue, returned from numerous crusades, humbly attired for pilgrimage and telling a tale of noble romantic virtues. Jones take a more historical and linguistic approach to the topic and does almost line-by-line assassination of this notion and shows us a medieval mercenary, a "poor-knight" that a medieval audience would have quickly recognised he and his retinue as a low born "free-lance" (hence the term). He looks at the military campaigns that Chaucer mentions in the general prologue, the disasterous campaigns of Peter of Cyprus and the mercenary hiring grounds of North Africa (where Christian Knights often worked for "heathen" Muslim employers. He goes back to the original Italian source of the Knight's Tale and shows how the Knight's telling of it omits all the important chivalric values and portrays a world of tyrannic values. Moreover he makes direct reference to Italy where the up and coming mercenaries of the day were making their coin (Chaucer had met and negotiated with Sir John Hawkwood, the notorious English soldier of fortune who became enormously wealthy in the service of Florence...and anyone else paying). Finally he looks at the Monk's tale and how the Knight begs him to stop his story as he begins tell some truths a little to close to home for the Knight.
I've given 4 stars as it reads a bit like a thesis, and if you haven't read the Chaucer I'm not sure it will be much fun, but it's a fantastic piece of scholarship.
I've given 4 stars as it reads a bit like a thesis, and if you haven't read the Chaucer I'm not sure it will be much fun, but it's a fantastic piece of scholarship.
July 14, 2024
I wouldn't expect everyone to enjoy this as much as I did. A literary/historical investigation of a once neglected character from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales penned by one of the Python's two Terrys, and written closer to his university days, placing the knight in his historical context in order to better understand the satirical/critical meaning of his un-chivalrous tales and his place in Chaucer's collection. Mr Jones has said that his interpretation was of its time, emerging from the era of the Vietnam War and the anti-colonial battles of the 1960s and 70s, but it's still valid.
***
(Since Sean Connery just died, I’ll take the opportunity to mention one of my favourite rediscoveries of the lockdown, because, if you are looking at this book, you might like this kind of thing. It's Robin and Marian, directed by Richard Lester and co-starring Audrey Hepburn. Medieval-ish, and referencing the Crusades too. A lovely pairing of actors, a subtle comic performance by Connery that I’m still thinking about, and another example of Richard Lester’s rollicking, comic anti-violence messages, emerging from a similar period to Jones' book, in the shadow of Vietnam. Like Lester’s forgotten Musketeers films, it has a great ensemble cast and art direction that may have inspired the Python’s other Terry, Gilliam. Also echoes Ellis Peter’s Cadfael stories.)
***
(Since Sean Connery just died, I’ll take the opportunity to mention one of my favourite rediscoveries of the lockdown, because, if you are looking at this book, you might like this kind of thing. It's Robin and Marian, directed by Richard Lester and co-starring Audrey Hepburn. Medieval-ish, and referencing the Crusades too. A lovely pairing of actors, a subtle comic performance by Connery that I’m still thinking about, and another example of Richard Lester’s rollicking, comic anti-violence messages, emerging from a similar period to Jones' book, in the shadow of Vietnam. Like Lester’s forgotten Musketeers films, it has a great ensemble cast and art direction that may have inspired the Python’s other Terry, Gilliam. Also echoes Ellis Peter’s Cadfael stories.)
June 3, 2010
What is it about Terry Jones? He's not very physically attractive. He's funny; that's true. But there is something very sexy about the way he writes history.
Chaucer's Knight changed the way people look at Chaucer's Knight. He's not all that of a nice guy when you read this. If you don't really like The Canterbury Tales: Nine Tales and the General Prologue, but like Terry Jones, you should read this. It is a good companion to his Terry Jones' Medieval Lives.
Jones makes a good case for the knight being a satire upon English mercenaries who fought in Italy (Sir John Hawkwood got quite a bit of play in Jones' Medieval Lives). The book is factual withouot being dull.
Chaucer's Knight changed the way people look at Chaucer's Knight. He's not all that of a nice guy when you read this. If you don't really like The Canterbury Tales: Nine Tales and the General Prologue, but like Terry Jones, you should read this. It is a good companion to his Terry Jones' Medieval Lives.
Jones makes a good case for the knight being a satire upon English mercenaries who fought in Italy (Sir John Hawkwood got quite a bit of play in Jones' Medieval Lives). The book is factual withouot being dull.
March 2, 2015
Being somewhat of a scholar of both the Canterbury Tales and Monty Python, I found this very interesting. Jones is thorough and convincing in proving his thesis that the Knight is far less chivalric than he seems. Though focused on a literary character, this is full of fascinating historical detail. Heavier and less humorous than the history books Jones co-write later on, this is a more specialized book. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
April 16, 2015
Although he didn't totally convince me, Jones's argument was thoroughly researched and well argued, and I will be bearing it in mind in my future consideration of the Canterbury Tales. The book was well written and helpfully broken up so if there's ever anything I want to check, I'll know where to look. An enjoyable and relatively quick read that also provides a helpful overview of Chaucer criticism over the years.
Want to read
March 12, 2008I love Chaucer and I love how Terry Jones explains things so I would really like to read this book... hint hint, my birthday's in April.
February 18, 2013
More than I ever wanted to know about Chaucer, but nicely told.
October 9, 2012
Interesting perspective. Still some questions about the argument.
November 19, 2014
Read only the first half. A bold premise, backed up with lots of research. But what did Chaucer really think? We may never know ....
Read
August 5, 2016La verdad es que los argumentos de Terry Jones para defender la posición del caballero mercenario son muy sólidos
September 11, 2016
I used this as the basis of a paper in college and got an A. Worth hunting down a copy of it.
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